


Little Dove, Not So Innocent

by MarisaKateBella



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: One Shot, One Shot Collection, Season/Series 03, Season/Series 04, canon pairings only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-03-01 13:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2775539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarisaKateBella/pseuds/MarisaKateBella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beth Greene gets caught fooling around with Zach...and she wants to die of embarrassment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Dove, Not So Innocent

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little drabble.
> 
> Please, read and enjoy!

_Hey,_

_I’m so tired. I know that’s a silly thing to say, it is the end of the world after all. But, then again, when we aren’t running…when we’re safe, it gets kind of boring…and sad. Daddy tells me that that’s a good thing, I can go back and try to be ‘normal’ but I don’t think I can. Is that bad? I’m not sure…but I’m trying. Zach, he’s nice, but every time I see him I just remember Jimmy…and then I remember Shawn and Momma. Maggie is the only other person who really gets it. She spends more time with Glenn than anyone nowadays, so I don’t really have anyone to talk to. I’ve tried talking to Carl, but he’s so young…and after what happened to Lori...just, none of it is fair._

_Carol is sweet, we’ve been spending a lot of time together since Judy was born, and after we found her. She’s really good with Judy, and she’s taught me a lot. Sometimes I forget that she used to be a mom…that that’s how we all met, really. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that now, since the last few days have been horrible.  Judy came down with a cold, or something, and it’s driving everyone insane. She’s been crying off and on for hours the past couple of nights, and nothing with make it go away. I just want her to stop, she sounds so sad. It breaks my heart._

_I asked Carol the other day if she thought that Judy was just crying because she missed her mom. Carol got really quiet for a little while, but I think she agreed with me because she smiled and then went and got Lori’s shirt from Carl’s cell and wrapped Judy up in it. Judy stopped crying as soon as Carol was done. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.. She didn’t stop forever though._

_That’s why I’m so tired, she cried for a straight twenty-four hours yesterday. Daddy said she’s just been having an episode of colic, but I don’t know…she’s been a really quite baby so far. I heard Carol muttering what sounded like a prayer, asking God for Judy to not have colic. Rick has been on edge, I’m pretty sure he’s been in the guard tower for over twelve hours, but I can’t be sure._

_Time passes so slowly here._

_Last night was probably the longest one of my life; I don’t know how mothers do it on a regular basis. I’m so thankful for everyone’s help, our little family does everything they can to make sure everyone is okay. Though, I secretly think that when Daryl asks if I’m tired and if he should hold Judy for a moment, he isn’t really asking after my health. So, I always say yes. Otherwise he and I don’t talk much, I think he’s afraid of me, which is kind of silly because he is the big scary redneck. I remember back on the farm how terrified I was of him. It wasn’t until I saw how far he was willing to go to make sure Judith was taken care of that I was convinced he wasn’t going to just up and leave us all to fend for ourselves one day._

_Daryl hasn’t slept in probably longer than any of us, Daddy told Carol and me to keep an eye on him, since we’re the ones up at all hours of the night with the baby, to make sure he’s getting some sleep. I guess I’m supposed to tell Rick if I notice Daryl isn’t sleeping, it’s not like I’m going to say anything to him about it. I know he was up just as long as I was last night. He came in to switch off watch with Rick after everyone had gone to bed. He disappeared into his cell for only a few minutes before he came back out and stood on the catwalk. Judy had been wailing for hour, her voice was raspy and dry, but she wouldn’t keep down any water and it had begun to sound painful._

_I sung her every song that I could think of, and even a couple twice, until the prison began to noticeably lighten. I was practically sleep-walking by the end of it, and the whole time Daryl was up above. First he was just standing there, his presence more unnerving than anything since I could barely see him and he wasn’t making any noise. It was creepy. After a while he started to pace though, he looked like an animal in a cage. He finally settled down, sitting with his legs hanging off the edge of the metal walkway. I went back to my room before he got up. I was sleeping until now. Judith is crying again, I can hear Carol outside in the common area with her. I can’t sleep when Judith is crying like this…its lunchtime though, I can hear Daddy calling; I guess I should go get something to eat._

_Love, Beth Greene_

****

Beth closed her diary and shoved it back in place under her pillow. “Comin’ Daddy,” she hollered down the hallway as she pulled her hair back and put her boots back on. She walked into the common room, giving Hershel a smile before flitting past him and over to Carol and Judith. She placed the back of her hand against Judith’s rosy cheek; it was warm but not alarmingly so.

“Nothing’s changed,” Carol reassured her.

“That’s good.” Hershel had come up behind his daughter and was looking worriedly at the infant in Carol’s arms.

Carol nodded in agreement but didn’t answer since Judith’s cries were quieting slightly. Hershel put a heavy hand on Beth’s shoulder and turned Beth away. She walked to the mess area under the wing of Hershel’s arm, although the weight of it was heavier than it used to be. She held one of his crutches so that they could walk this way. Once they made it under the canopy Beth handed him his crutch back and hurried over to where one of the Woodbury women was passing out lunch.

“Hi,” Beth greeted with a soft smile.

The woman was pretty young, probably in her late twenties, with strawberry blonde hair. “Hey, you hungry?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“All right, you can have soup, but first you gotta answer three questions.”

Beth looked over her shoulder at her father, who was caught in conversation with Glenn at one corner, back to the woman. “I don’t think—“ _–that’s what you should say?_ She couldn’t say that, it was too rude. The woman must’ve caught the confused look on Beth’s face because her smile faltered slightly.

“They ain’t hard questions, dear. Just some fun,” the woman explained.

“Oh, okay…” Beth allowed after a moment.

“What’s your name, dear?”

“Beth Greene.”

“Ah, you must be Maggie’s sister. She came through a few minutes ago,” the woman revealed. “Second question: favorite color?”

Beth giggled, surprised by the direction the new Woodburian had gone. “Red.”

“Ah, the color of passion. Very nice,” the woman winked and handed over a bowl of soup to Beth as she asked the final question. “What’d you do before all this?”

“I’m only seventeen.”

“Yeah, all right, but what did you _do_?”

Beth thought about it for a moment before she managed a small smile to shape with the help of her tired muscles. “I was a musician.”

“Lovely, you sing too? I thought I heard someone singing a few mornings ago.” The woman tapped a finger to her lips.

Beth blushed but nodded. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Lila, nice to meet you, Beth. Enjoy your soup!”

“Thank you, nice to meet you too.” Beth turned and looked around before spotting the back of Zach’s head; he was sitting across from Daryl, who looked as tired as she felt. She went over and slipped into the seat next to Zach who looked up and smiled when he saw Beth. He reminded her of a golden retriever.

“Hey, babe,” Zach greeted her. “Get any sleep last night?”

Beth’s eyes connected with Daryl’s over their bowls of soup.

He snorted and rolled his eyes.

Beth huffed a laugh at his reaction and shoveled a spoonful of soup into her mouth.

Zach looked back and forth between them. “I’m guessing that’s a no. I’m glad I can’t hear her over from A Block. I can’t imagine.” He shivered for emphasis.

“She’ll be fine in a few days,” Beth responded.

Daryl sighed and began to stand without word, Beth could hear his joints popping as he untangled himself out from under the bench. She wished she had the guts to tell him to go get some sleep.

“What do you say we go for a walk when you’re done?” Zach asked casually after they both finished watching Daryl walk away.

“Sure.” All Beth really wanted to do was go back to her cell and sleep, but she hadn’t seen Zach in two days because she’d been taking care of Judith. It was nice that he was eager to spend time with her but understood that Judith came first, she was sure that Jimmy wouldn’t have felt that way…but it wasn’t fair to think like that. She had no idea how Jimmy would’ve handled it.

When she tipped the last bit of soup into her mouth, Zach took both the bowl out of her hand, waving off her protests as he went to put them back on the counter for Lila. He came back and they left together; it wasn’t until they rounded the corner and where out of sight that Zach reached over and grabbed her hand. She was grateful for that.

They made there way down one of the various passages in the labyrinth that was the bottom of the prison, Beth had no idea where they were but she didn’t really care; she trusted Zach, and she was actually having a nice time, just him and her away from all the worries for just a moment. It was a nice escape, and Zach was funny, keeping her entertained with witty comments and anecdotes from before the world had gone to shit. He was all by himself now.

Beth couldn’t imagine that, even if—godforbid—Hershel or Maggie was killed she still had Glenn, Carl, Rick, Carol, and Daryl. She would never have to be alone. It was admirable too. She would have never survived on her own the way Zach had; it made him brave, and she liked that.

She also liked when Zach gently crowded her against the grey wall of one of the prison’s various hallways, capturing her lips with his and really making her forget that they were in the middle of the end of the world. She didn’t know how long they existed in that bubble, where the only sounds came from them and the dripping of a broken pipe somewhere in the distance. Her eyes were closed and she blissfully shut out everything except the feeling of Zach’s hands warm underneath her shirt as they kissed.

“Beth?”

A flash of light flicked over her eyes and she gasped, pushing Zach away from her. His hands slipped from her shirt and down into his pockets so fast that, if she didn’t feel the warmth still on her stomach, then she wouldn’t have believed he’d just been touching her. The light from a flashlight moved, and the holder of it came in to Beth’s view. Heat spread quickly up into her face, burning under her cheeks.

“R-Rick?” She pulled her cardigan around her as if it were an invisible cloak that she could don and escape her embarrassment. She ran one hand shakily through her ponytail and moved from up against the wall. 

“I’m…gonna go—“ Zach began backing away down the hallway.

“Zach—“ Beth reached out for his sleeve but he pulled his hand away.

“Nah, this is a conversation for you and your…uh…your people.” Zach shrugged slightly and tried to slip past Rick, whose hand shot out with the deadly accuracy of a cobra, grabbing Zach’s wrist.

“We’re going to have a talk,” Rick’s voice was quiet but dangerous. It bounced back to Beth in the concrete corridor. Once Zach nodded, Rick let go of him. Beth was impressed that Zach managed to keep his pace calm and collected as he strolled away.

 _Brave_.

Rick turned back around and Beth swallowed, crossing her arms over her chest defensively, trying to muster up every bit of indignation she could to keep from bursting out in to tears. “What’re you doin’ down here?” she finally managed to say.

Rick’s face, which had been passively empty for the last few moments, cracked into a small smirk. “I could ask you the same thing,” he pointed out.

Beth felt the wave of humiliation rise up again.

Rick shook the small square packet that she hadn’t noticed was in his hand. “Storage room, more seeds. Heard something moving around…”

Beth looked down at her feet, trying to swallow back her mortification.

“Look—it ain’t my place to say anything to you ‘bout it.”

Beth’s tense shoulders sagged a little bit and she looked beseechingly back up at Rick.

“But—I’m gonna have to tell your father.”

Beth’s heart stuttered and she took a step forward, her hands reaching out before dropping to her sides. “C’mon, Rick—I—we weren’t goin’—we… _I_ know better,” she managed to force out through her shattered pride.

Rick visibly flinched a bit at the implication of her words before he sighed, long and loud, heavy with the weight of more than Beth could really fathom. His breath seemed to fill all the space in the tiny corridor. “I’m sure you know better.”

“So, you won’t tell Daddy?” She asked with a bright smile.

Rick didn’t say anything, but she kept smiling at him until he turned and beckoned her to follow her back up to the surface. It wasn’t for another few hours, before she realized that Rick had never had any intention of not telling her father.

“Beth, I need to talk to you.”

Her father was standing in the entryway to the cells, looking at her with a hard line to his thin mouth. Beth passed Judith, who was suckling greedily at a bottle, to Carol. Judith had stopped crying around noon and hadn’t made a noise since. It was peacefully quiet, which meant that everyone heard the sternness of her father’s voice when he called out to her. Beth looked around and spotted Rick over in a corner talking to Carl. He was pointedly shutting himself out of the situation, with his back to the scene, murmuring quietly to Carl despite the fact that everyone else had stopped talking.

“Beth, now,” Hershel demanded and then turned and walked towards his cell.

Beth jumped up off the table she was sitting at like his voice had electrocuted her. She walked through the small crowd, feeling Maggie, Glenn, Carl, and Carol’s eyes on her back the whole way to her father’s cell. She closed the curtain behind her and stood in the doorway.

“Take a seat, Bethy,” Hershel said much more calmly than Beth had anticipated.

She perched lightly on the edge of his bed, closest to the door.

He sat down heavily beside her. She put her hands out to steady him, even though she knew that he was practiced at this by now. He nodded his thanks to her as she folded her hands back down into her lap and hung her head. She knew there was no point in defending herself, Rick would’ve never lied about something like that, and both she and Hershel knew it. She flinched slightly when Hershel’s big, heavy, calloused hand covered her small ones.

“Bethy, I know you aren’t going to do anything with that boy you know you aren’t supposed to,” her father said in that matter-of-fact voice she had heard many times before.

She looked up, big blue eyes wide with surprise. “I’m not in trouble?”

Hershel sighed, but then smiled slightly despite himself. “I know I raised you right. I trust you to make the right choices here, Beth. You’re a young woman now.”

Beth grinned prettily and leaned over to throw her arms around her father’s neck, kissing his cheek. He grabbed her forearm with one hand and patted her cheek with the other. After a few moments she leaned back, still smiling. “I won’t let you down. I love you, Daddy.”

“I know, sweetie. I love you, too.”

“Can I go now?” Beth asked eager to escape the confines of her father’s cell. Even though she had been forgiven, she knew that her father wasn’t one hundred percent all right with what had transpired today.

Hershel nodded.

Beth bounced off the bed and headed back into the common room. Maggie was the first to grab her attention, and she made her way over to where Glenn and Maggie were plotting in the corner.

“Okay, so what did you get in trouble for?” Glenn asked eagerly.

Maggie smacked him in the chest and rolled her eyes. “What happened?” Maggie asked with more concern in her voice than Glenn had. Beth knew that besides curiosity there was genuine worry on her part, since only Maggie knew just how brutal a sit-down with Hershel Greene could be.

“Nothing, I didn’t get in trouble,” Beth admitted triumphantly.

“At all?” Glenn asked with a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.

“No,” Beth giggled. “Why? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes, of course it is,” Maggie said, shooting Glenn a look that said if he didn’t keep his mouth shut things would end very badly for him. Glenn, properly chastised, wondered off, leaving the sisters alone.

“Are you really okay?” Maggie asked, wrapping an arm around Beth.

Beth snaked her arm around Maggie’s waist. “Fine, promise.”

“So, what was it about?” Maggie couldn’t help the noisy inquiry from slipping past her lips.

“I—erhm—Zach and I may’ve been caught in a…how do you, say it? A compromising position earlier?” she phrased it like a question, swirling her sleeve-covered fingers around each other awkwardly.

Maggie drew away so that she could look Beth in the eyes, her mouth dropped open in light of the scandal. “Beth!”

“Shhh! It’s fine, we were just—making out,” Beth whispered harshly.

Maggie pulled her closer again and, matching her sister’s tone, asked: “Was it good?”

“Maggie!” Beth shrieked with a giggle.

“Was it?” Maggie prodded, chuckling now too and poking Beth in the ribs.

“Yes,” Beth squeaked out.

The two sisters collapsed into laughter.

“Shh!” Echoed from four different corners of the room, reminding them of the sleeping baby in their midst.

The Greene girls tucked their heads together and put a hand over each other’s mouth, trying to catch the joy before it could escape into the gloom of the world.


End file.
